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PREFACE OF THE AUTHOR

Many persons having desired, that I should give to the public an abridgment of my larger work on the origin of religious Worship, I have concluded not to delay any longer their expectations. I have therefore condensed the work in such a manner as to present the substance of the principles on which my theory- is established, and to give an extract of its most important results, without dwelling much on particulars, which may always be found in the larger edition.

This synopsis will be found useful even by those who should possess the first, because it will serve as a guide in the study of many volumes, which on account of the nature of the work, places the ordinary reader beyond the circle of learning usually required, in order to read with profit, and without great effort, a work of erudition. They will find there a succinct result of their studies and precisely that which is desirable to be retained in the mind of those who do not wish to give themselves up entirely to the profound study of antiquity, and yet still desire to become acquainted with its religious spirit. As for those who have not access to the larger edition, they will find in this abridgment an extract of the principles of the new system of explanations and a sufficiently detailed account of the discoveries to which it has led, as also an idea of those more remote consequences which may result to those, who shall pursue still further the study of antiquity on this newly opened route.

It will thus offer to both new ideas, which are not in the larger work. I have divested it, as much as the subject allowed, of that learned matter, which would involve an unusual erudition, in order to place it within the reach of the greatest number of readers possible, because the instruction and the happiness of my fellow men has been and shall always be the object of my labours,

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PREFACE OF THE TRANSLATOR

In presenting this translation of the philosophical work of Dupuis, to an intelligent American Public, the translator, while doubting the adequacy of his labours, still hopes, that the difficulties inherent in such a task, will be properly appreciated, in as much as elegance of style and conciseness are apt to suffer, when a strict adherence to the sense of the author is aimed at.

For the proper understanding of certain chapters in this work, a somewhat classical education will be required. Its pages were destined for the lover of wisdom, for the friend of humanity and truth. Written during the stormy times of the first French Revolution, its object was evidently to expose the corrupting tendencies of Catholicism in France. The attentive reader will admire the prophetic words of the author, with regard to its future state of society; his profound erudition and his exuberant store of historical knowledge of antiquity, exhibited in his explanations of all religious systems, but especially of that of the Christian dogma in the shape of Catholicity. Stripping it of all its ancient drapery and finery, he fearlessly plants the torchlight of reason and history into the midst of the Dome of St. Peter, and from its glare all the phantoms of superstition and traditional imposition seem to vanish like the shades of night before the rising sun. If the foundations of the whole edifice of this dogma are thereby materially impaired, it is that science and truth are no respector of creeds or persons, and like the sun will shine on the just and the unjust.

The learned author's novel and peculiar system of explanations leads the attentive reader imperceptibly to startling revelations, which, while instructive and replete with interesting details, are undoubtedly coming into conflict with old established ideas and preconceived notions. In this the im- {p.5} partial reader must be his own judge. We, however, fully agree with the author, when he exclaims, as it were in despair: "That it would appear, almost an act of folly, in pretending to uproot that ancient Upas-tree of religious superstition, under the poisonous shade of which mankind has been for ages accustomed to repose and the roots of which are so wide-spread and profound."

In this age of refined hypocrisy, how can such a work be expected to please? There will be many, unable to shake of their ancient prejudices, their fetters of anti-natural education, and others, who, while fully concurring in their hearts with the voice of Reason and Nature, yet cannot divest themselves of the idea, that some sort of deceit is necessary, in order to maintain the standard of morality in society. Unfortunately, there seems to be some reason for it, as long as Fiction, Supernaturalism and Deceit shall be made the basis of moral education instead of Truth and Nature. There cannot be any doubt, with a thorough reform of all educational systems on that basis, an improved standard of morality would be the natural consequence.

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MEMOIR
ON THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF DUPUIS;
EXTRACTED AND TRANSLATED FROM THE
BIOGRAPHIE DES CONTEMPORAINS

Dupuis (Charles Francois) was born at Trie-le-Chateau, near Chaurzont, in the Department of Oise, in France, on the 16th October, 1742, of honest, but poor parents. He was taught mathematics and surveying by his father, who was a teacher, and at the early age of six he already wrote a very good hand, so much so, that it could serve as a model. His parents having removed to La Roche Guyoln, in the Department of Seine and Oise, he was occupied one day on the shore of the Seine to take with a graphometer the height of the steeple of that town. Dauring that occupation the young Geometrician, who was then not more than twelve years old, was observed by the Duke de la Rochefoucault who seemed to be destined to become the protector and friend of the men of merit and talent of his time, and to whose friendship or favour we owe perhaps the accession to science of the celebrated Dolomileu. The Duke accosted the youth, and being highly pleased with his answers to his questions, he placed him with the authorisation of his parents, at the college of Harcourt, where he endowed him with a scholarship. The illustrious protector was very soon recompensed for his benevolence by the rapid progress of his protégé, who at the age of twenty-four was installed as professor of Rhetoric at the college of Lisieux. During the leisure hours left him by the duties of his office, Dupuis studied law, and was received as an advocate in 1770 {p.7} at the Parliament of Paris. At about that time he quitted the ecclesiastical dress, which he had worn until then, and married. In 1775 he was charged with the composition of the Latin oration for the distribution of the prizes of the University. The Parliament of Paris had been re-established after the death of Louis XV, and that illustrious body rendered that ceremony still more imposing and solemn by its presence on that occasion. The young orator skilfully availed himself of a political circumstance, which allowed him to treat his subject in a new light, and his speech was much applauded; it made him a great many friends amongst the Magistrates. An other opportunity offered some years after, to justify the trust of the first educational body of the State, and to obtain a new literary success, when he was charged in the year 1780 to pronounce in the name of the University, the funeral oration of the Empress Maria Theresa. His talent seemed to have acquired more strength and maturity. Dupuis was acknowledged to be an eminent scholar, well versed in the humanities of literature, and an ornament to the Republic of letters. The Mathematics, which he had mastered with great facility, soon claimed his whole attention; attending, however, at the same time, the lectures on Astronomy of Lalande, whose friend he became, as he was already that of the Duke de la Rochefoucault, of the Abbotts Barthelemy and Leblond, and of the most distinguished men of that epoch. His daily labours and his intimate relations gave him the idea of that great work, l'Origine de tous les Cultes (The Origin of all Religious Worship), which has established his reputation. He began with publishing several fragments of it in the Journal des Savants, (editions of June, October and December, 1777, and February, 1781,) and made a present of it to the Academy of Inscriptions. He united these scattered materials and procured their republication in the Astronomy of Lalande, issuing them separately in one volume in 4to. 1781, under the title of "Memoires sur l'Origine des Constellations et sur l'Explica- {p.8} tion de la Fable par l'Astronomie." (Memoirs on the Origin of the Constellations and on the Explanation of the Fable by Astronomy.) The system of Dupuis, the result of a superior genius and an immense erudition, was new and well calculated to excite the curiosity of Savans and of the Laity; besides he opened a new route for the meditations of the men of learning, and soon obtained universal notice; he was applauded with enthusiasm and criticised with bitterness; however, the author was never calumniated; in our days he would doubtless not have escaped that honor. Bailly undertook to refute this system in his history of Astronomy (5th volume). Dupuis continued nevertheless to perfect it, and in 1794 published his work (3 volumes in 4to. and Atlas, and 12 volumes in 8vo.) with the title of Origine de tous les Cultes ou la Religion universelle. The appearance of this work produced an extraordinary sensation. To some it appeared paradoxical and calculated to undermine the foundations of the Christian Religion. Others, and those were in the majority, acknowledged it to be a singular but strong conception of the greatest interest, which was the product of learning, of wise investigation, of meditation and long experience. They thought that this work was not to be judged lightly or precipitately, nor by superficial minds; they considered it finally as one of those monuments erected by human genius as a mark of its passage through Time, and which it bequeaths to posterity for the meditation of men of science of all times and all nations, of men, whose enlightened minds and judgment are independent of religious and political revolutions. The work of Dupuis has neither destroyed nor shaken any creed. Altar and Throne had already been overthrown, when it made its appearance, and when re-established a few years after its publication, they were not injured by it, because Religion is a sentiment and not a calculation, and because the heart yields to its inspiration, when the spirit discusses and judges.

Dupuis published an abridgment of this work in one volume {p.9} in 8º (1798, or in the 6th year of the Republic), which has received several editions either in that form or in 18º in one or two volumes. The Count de Tracy has made a species of compendium of the work of Dupuis, under the title of Analyse raisonnee de l'Origine de tous les cultes. (Rational Analysis of the Origin of All Religious Worship.) (Paris in 8º 1804.) The same work of the Origin of All Religious Worship was commented upon by the learned Peter Brunet, of the old house of St. Lazare, in his compilation of the parallel of Religions (5 Vol. in 4º.) M. Dulaure has given a real introduction to the Origin of All Religious Worship by the publication of his book, under the title: Des Cultes qui onut precede et amen l'idolatrie et l'adoration des figures humnaines. (Paris in 8º 1805. Of the various modes of Religious Worship, which preceded and brought on Idolatry and the Worship of human figures.)

Dupuis himself has left among his Manuscripts, Inquiries upon the Cosmogonies and Theogonies, which might serve as evidence in vindication of the system, which he has developed in his work. Chenier, in his Introduction ant tableau de la litterature where he frequently characterizes with one word the most beautiful creations of genius, says: "With Dupuis rational erudition inquires into the common origin of the various religious traditions."

Dupuis was fond of occupation and retirement, and had made Belleville his residence during the summer months. In 1778 he built on the house, where he lived, with the aid of Letellier a Telegraph, the idea of which he had conceived in Guillaume Amontons, a geometer and French mechanician, who had been eulogized by Fontenelle. Aided by a telescope, Fortin, a friend of Dupuis corresponded with him from Bagneux, where he lived, collecting thus the signals, which were made to him from Belleville, and answering them the same way. At the commencement of the Revolution, Dupuis destroyed his 2 {p.10} machine, fearing that it might render him suspected to the Government. This discovery, which was at a later epoch universally adopted, and particularly in France, was despised at the time of its invention. It was only when the Messrs. Chappe Brothers had succeeded in perfecting and establishing it for the use of the Government, that its importance was acknowledged.

Dupuis had been nominated as Professor of Latin eloquence at the College of France; in 1778 he became a member of the Academy of Inscriptions, replacing Rochefort, author of a translation in rhyme of Homer's Iliad. On that occasion he received the customary visits of the Duke de La Rochefoucault and of the Abbott Barthelemy. A short time afterwards he was nominated by the Department of Paris as one of the four Commissioners of public instruction; but when the Revolution broke out he withdrew from the Capital and retired to Evreux; he was still domiciled in that city, when he was elected by the Department of Seine and Oise as a Deputy to the National Convention, where amidst the greatest storms of political agitation he was conspicuous for his moderation. In the trial of the King he voted for detention as a measure of general security, and after his condemnation he declared himself for respite. When he gave his vote, he spoke to the following effect: "I desire that the opinion, which shall obtain the majority of the suffrages, may effect the happiness of all my fellow citizens, and that will be the case, when it can sustain the severe criticism of Europe and of posterity, which shall judge the King and his judges." It was only on account of the little confidence, which his colleagues placed in his enlightened views, that Dupuis owed the impunity of so daring a speech. Without that circumstance, he would have been perhaps one of those, to whom those tigers said in threatening tones, with a terrible allusion to the head of Louis XVI: Either His or Thine! He was nominated Secretary of the Convention, a {p.11} place, which he was not allowed to decline. Some time after that he made a motion of order on the occasion of discussing the qualifications of the Terrorists and the Jacobins, he complained against arbitrary disarmaments, and wished measures to be taken, in order to regulate the process of denunciation. He presented his views on political Economy, and finally submitted the project of a decree, the object of which was, to cause all the agents of the Republic to render an account of their agency. He dedicated to the Assembly his work of the Origin of All Religious Worship, and the Assembly made honourable mention of it. Lalande gave an account of this work in the Moniteur. It had been expected for some time and the printing of it had been done under the supervision of the Abbott Leblond on the express invitation of the Club des Cordeliers (Club of the Gray Friars). Dupuis, who feared to incite the religious community against him, wanted to burn the manuscript, but his wife took possession of it, and kept it from his sight, so long as she feared the loss of the work, the fruit of so many nights study.

After the conventional session, Dupuis was nominated to the council of the Five hundred, where he made a report on the establishment of central schools, presented his views on public instruction, seconded the proposition of Louvet on the liberty of the press, and claimed publicity of discussion on the finances. In the year seven of the Republic he was placed on the list of candidates for the executive Directory; and was balloted for thrice with General Moulin, who was finally elected; he became a member of the National Institute, which he contributed to reorganize, and also a member of the Legislative body, over which he presided after the 18th of Brumaire in the 8th year of the Republic (9th November 1799). By this latter Body and also by the Tribunate he was proposed as a member of the Conservative Senate. A short time after, the decoration of the Legion of Honour was conferred on him. When {p.12} relieved from all political office, he returned again to his favourite occupations, and divided his time with his family, his friends and his books. He resided at a small country house in Burgundy, when he was seized with putrid fever, of which he died on the 29th September 1809 in the sixty-seventh year of his age.

Dupuis has also published the following works: 1º) Memoirs on the Pelasgi, inserted in the collection of the Institute, class of ancient literature. The object of the author was to prove by all the authorities, which he could collect from monuments and from history, that the Pelasgi came originally from Ethiopia, and were a powerful nation, spread over all parts of the ancient World, and to which Greece, Italy and Spain owed their civilization. 2º) Memoir on the Zodiac of Tentyra (Dendra or Denderah). This monument of the sacred and astronomical science of the Egyptians, which had been the object of a particular study of the Savans of the French expedition to Egypt, was brought to Paris in the year 1822, owing to the zeal of two Frenchmen, amateurs of the fine arts. (Messrs. Saulnier, son of the Deputy of that name, and Le Lorrain.) It has furnished to Dupuis the subject of a learned comparison with the Zodiacs of the Greeks, of the Chinese, the Persians, Arabians, &c. As the Memoir was written in the same spirit, which presided over the composition of the Origin of All Religious Worship, it forms as it were its corollary and completement. 3º) Memoirs on the Phoenix (which was read at the Institute, and which belongs, as well as the Refutation of Larcher, to the collection of Memoirs of that body). This fabulous bird was in the opinion of Dupuis, the symbol of the great year, composed of 1461 indefinite years, in other words the canicular period, because the canicule or dog days opened and closed its course. 4º) Dupuis has published in the New Almanac of the Muses of 1805 a fragment of verses of the as {p.13} astronomical poem of Nonnus, which he intended to translate entirely. He left in manuscript, besides the one we have mentioned before, a very extensive work on the Egyptian Hieroglyphs, letters on Mythology addressed to his niece and a translation of selected orations of Cicero. It has before been remarked that the works of Dupuis were the cause of the appearance of several important literary productions, even amongst those, where they had pretended to refute him. That, which is not less worthy of remark, is, that it was after a conversation with Dupuis, that the late Count de Volney composed his excellent work The Ruins, or Meditations on the Revolutions of Empires. The death of Dupuis was universally regretted. His erudition and learning was of the highest order and merit; he was a man of a mild character, of pure manners, and of agreeable society.

M. Dacier, his colleague at the Institute has pronounced his eulogy. Mrs. Dupuis has published a Memoir of the Life and Writings of her husband, and all the authors of Biographies have rendered homage to his personal qualities. The continuers of the Dictionary of the Abbott Feller, who by a singular inadvertence attribute to him the work of M. Dulaure: Of the various Modes of Religious Worship, which have preceded Idolatry, &c., thus express themselves: Dupuis was considered a learned and honest man, but it would have been desirable also, if he had chosen less abstract subjects, and had not frequented the society of philosophers, in order to be more estimable and less irreligious. This praise, even thus modified is not the less flattering for the author of the Origin of All Religious Worship, to whom,—notwithstanding a very bitter censure of his works, which rigorously construed, could pass for a violent diatribe, the authors of the Universal Biography render however this justice: That he died without fortune, leaving to his widow for all inheritance the reputation of an honest man. When {p.14} our talents divide our judges, how gratifying is it, to reconcile them by our moral qualities.

NOTE. This Memoir has been extracted from the Biographie nouvelle des Contemporains (the New Biography of Contemporaries) by M, M. Arnault, ancient member of the Institute; A. Jay of the French Academy; I. Norvins and other men of learning.

This page last updated: 19/04/2008